Featured Interview With Irene Dolnick
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I dusted the roots of my Southwestern roots to live in a large New England city, where the hustle and bustle of everyday life feed my development. I have a B.A. degree from UMass Boston and a MEd in Reading and Literacy.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was a struggling reader but I loved to learn. I began writing while I was at the University of Massachusetts Boston. My love of writing continued even after I graduated. I began writing my first children’s book when I was obtaining my Masters in Reading. My heart melted when I talked to children who were being left behind.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My love for children continues and I have started a non-profit organization that will donate my books to engage students with my Phonics fun with Kurt, Gert, Jasmine, and Bagel Literacy Initiative. In addition, I will also engage those mature readers in our Global Warming Project because my family has returned to the Southwest and 106 degree temperatures are not helpful to my now disabled husband.
While I love the classics (Hawthorne, Dickens etc.), I also read Christine Feehan, James Patterson, Daniele Steele and instructional reading books.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Kurt, Get, Jasmine, and Bagel is a phonics book that contains many moral lessons embedded in the text and most importantly introduces or re-introduces reading concepts such as blending, segmenting, pronunciation of controlled r (vowel preceding the r), double o, ou, ow, ough, ch, sh, th, wh, f, ff, ph, and augh words. The vowels targeted are color coded and underlined. By the end of the book, the Dyslexic or struggling reader no longer needs the underline because the brain has already encoded the pronunciation.
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